I would like to extend my thanks to Dr. M.l Raven, the curator of the
Egyptian Department of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, who
granted permission to publish the photographs of J 384 and 395 and
allowed me to inspect the originals, as weIl as to the museum's
photographers, M.J. Bomhof and A. De Kemp, for providing the prints. My
gratitude also goes to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for
supporting this project, and to the Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der
Wissenschaften for including this volume in the present series and for a
subsidy towards the cost of its publication. Finally I would like to
thank R. Merkelbach for his help in connection with this project. Robert
W. Daniel INTRODUCTION The papyri J 384 (previously V) and J 395
(previously W) of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden are now
usually consulted in K. Preisendanz' standard edition, 2 Papyri Graecae
Magicae (Stuttgart 1974 ), and referred to as PGM XII and XIII
respective1y. These two large papyri are among the most important
magical texts that have survived from late antiquity - especially J 395
with its famous 'Leiden Cosmogony'.